Back in 2006 the good people of Ninja Tune decided they wanted to start a rock label. But not any old, boring, run-of-the-mill rock label. Not a rock label pumping out the latest British indie four piece bands, or carefully crafted facsimiles of classic rawk. Not a label peopled by ironic Hoxtonites playing pisstakes of AC/DC. Not a rock label licensing in already-successful US acts and re-packaging them for the UK market. A rock label that took the same irreverent, iconoclastic, vaguely psychedelic attitude towards that type of music as the parent label had taken to various aspects of dance music. The results of this project are just now beginning to reach fruition and what better way to celebrate (and introduce listeners to a rapidly expanding roster) than with a "Pay-No-More-Than-£2.99" sampler showcasing some of the finest moments from the misfits, freaks and visionaries shaping the label's sound?

Press Release :
Back in 2006 the good people of Ninja Tune decided they wanted to start a rock label. But not any old, boring, run-of-the-mill rock label. Not a rock label pumping out the latest British indie four piece bands, or carefully crafted facsimiles of classic rawk. Not a label peopled by ironic Hoxtonites playing pisstakes of AC/DC. Not a rock label licensing in already-successful US acts and re-packaging them for the UK market. A rock label that took the same irreverent, iconoclastic, vaguely psychedelic attitude towards that type of music as the parent label had taken to various aspects of dance music.

The results of this project are just now beginning to reach fruition and what better way to celebrate (and introduce listeners to a rapidly expanding roster) than with a "Pay-No-More-Than-£2.99" sampler showcasing some of the finest moments from the misfits, freaks and visionaries shaping the label's sound?
"Strike!" is as varied and uncategorisable as the musicians making up the label's roster. Drawn from Liverpool, the West Country, Wisconsin, Australia, Darlington and so on and living everywhere from Los Angeles to Baltimore to New York as well as London (and, erm, Darlington), the only thing they share in common is their attempts to re-write the rule book of what can be done with their chosen form of expression.

Track by track info :

1) The Heavy - Oh No! Not You Again!
The Heavy are a four piece from a little hamlet called Noid. The first offering from their second album, "The House That Dirt Built," "Oh No…!" finds the quartet in the mood to testify. The tune features Shingai Shoniwa of The Noisettes on backing vocals. Get on your knees and feel the dirt.

2) Pop Levi - Police $ign
Formerly of Super Numeri and Ladytron, Pop Levi has also worked as an ice cream van driver and hair model, before finding 'home' by living out a Kenneth Anger movie in LA. This track, recorded Christmas 2008 for his third album, channels the spirit of the Stooges through Pop's own "magickal" systems. In the man's own words, "it's about a roller-skating femme-fatale who uses constabulary equipment to get what she wants."

3) The Death Set - Around The World
Part of the Wham City collective (Dan Deacon, Ponytail, Girl Talk etc), who live and put on parties in the warehouses of Baltimore. The first song The Death Set ever wrote, whilst stuck at home in Australia. The chorus to their future adventures, a grand act of wish fulfilment, it heralds the arrival of the most fun band you will ever see live.

4) Cougar - Stay Famous
One of the newest members to the Counter family, Cougar are from Madison, Wisconsin. This is a band who can hit hard with muscular riffing and machine gun drumming or come over all sweeping emotion. What they never do is let their obvious musicianship get in the way of banging out a good tune.

5) Spokes - Torn Up In Praise
An exclusive cut from their first album proper for Counter, recorded round a bonfire at a country house somewhere in North East England. Buoyed bittersweet joy and the kind of self-belief that makes stars, we have a feeling something special is around the corner for these guys.

6) Pop Levi - Blue Honey
The track that announced Pop Levi and Counter Records to the world with a very big bang in August 2006. That it's fookin' great is about the only thing the Gallagher brothers have ever agreed on. It's the only thing we've ever agreed with them on, too…

7) The Heavy - That Kind Of Man
This was the debut single by The Heavy - voodoo-soul which mixes and matches Rza, H.P. Lovecraft, Stax, Led Zeppelin and Screamin' Jay Hawkins into the kind of cauldron-melting potion which is utterly original, haunting, weird and sexy all at once.

8) The Death Set - Paranoia
A bouncy little number which although not present on it actually predates their "Worldwide" debut album. Its all about being freaked out by hipsters, but then rising above it through the power of throwing yourself around with no self-consciousness and wearing bad clothes because you actually like them.

9) Ape School - Wail To God
Michael Johnson is Ape School, and came to Counter's attention with the vocal for "Make It So" on Daedelus' "Love To Make Music To." Formerly a member of Holopaw (Sub Pop), this was Michael's first foray into the world of glass slide guitar and secret apocalypse: "Tear their arms from their sides/ Rip their ears from their heads/ And bask in their pain" And yea, it came to pass that themes of armageddon and suffering should be delivered via perfect psych-pop melody.

10) Cougar - Rhinelander
Rhinelander is a small sleepy town near where Cougar live and this tune shows that they can do understated beauty as well as riffin' out. The choral singing is in Latin, natch, and translates as "You who take away the sins of the world."

11) Spokes - We Like To Dance and Steal Things
From their debut "People Like People Like You" released on their own imprint, Everyone, in 2008 and reissued by Counter in 2009. A beautifully arranged instrumental that builds and escalates to a tumbling, euphoric crescendo.

12) John Matthias - Stockwell Road
A violin prodigy, one of John's many claims to fame is that he contributed string parts to Radiohead's "The Bends." He also works as a member of Nonclassical's Cortical Songs and PRS award-winning The Fragmented Orchestra. For Counter, Matthias recorded a singer-songwriter album of genuine emotional weight, built around his rich, dry voice. This track is about witnessing a shooting on Stockwell Road. Check out his debut, "Smalltown Shining," on Matthew Herbert's Accidental records, too.

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